


Unachievable Perfection

by mbav54



Category: Magisterium Series - Holly Black & Cassandra Clare
Genre: AU, Calron, M/M, single dads
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-06-05
Updated: 2017-06-05
Packaged: 2018-11-09 04:11:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,720
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11096625
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mbav54/pseuds/mbav54
Summary: AU: Two single dads, Callum Hunt and Aaron Stewart, strike up a conversation in the park when they end up sharing a bench. Callum hates the handsome Aaron who seems to have it all together, but somehow, he gets along with him well.But Aaron is the least of his problems since all of a sudden, Alex Strike seems interested in Call. And his motives are unclear.





	Unachievable Perfection

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! Hello! My first Calron fanfic here! My first Magisterium fanfic, actually. I’m just really obsessed with this fandom as of lately and I wanted to give this a shot. 
> 
> I have so many AU ideas, but I thought I’d start with a more innocent one. The more dark ones are coming in the next weeks, hopefully. No promises there. Either way, I’ll be working on 3 fics at a time.
> 
> Anyway, I hope you guys enjoy this single dads AU!

Call had always hated the park. Public places made him anxious and uneasy. But his daughter, Sophia, for some strange reason, _loved_ the park. He didn’t know how she was this energetic when it came to hanging out with other children, but if this trait didn’t come from him, it could be from her mother, Celia. The woman was a ray of sunshine, a social butterfly, and a joy to be around. Call had no idea how she fell for a man who was the complete opposite, but he wasn’t hating the idea.

The four-year-old little girl took her father’s hand and started pulling as she skipped towards the playground. Despite hating being pulled and feeling the ache in his left leg, Call felt good seeing the smile on her face. Somewhere in his cold, dead heart, he felt warmth.

“Dad! Look!” Sophia exclaimed. “The swings are empty!” She pointed at them with her free hand, her excitement apparent in her tiny jumps.

“Well, then go run before they’re taken!” he said, mirroring her smile. Nothing in her walk changed and she wasn’t hurrying up like usual, so Call’s response was to say, “Go! Go! Go!”

Sophia let go of his hand and giggled, running towards the play area. A part of Call wished he could have been like his daughter as a child, but he wasn’t exactly social or jumpy. He didn’t even like the sand in playgrounds. He was just like his dad, happy with being left alone. People felt pity for him because he was often seen by himself, but Call didn’t mind at all. Of course, he would like to have someone there for him, but as of now, he had his little girl. His main focus was to be a decent dad. Celia said he was, but she was never rude. She would lie if it meant she could be nice to him.

Turning his attention to the benches with a view of the playground, he found an empty seat. He started to approach it, glad that he didn’t have to sit somewhere far away this time while he waited for play time to be over. As he got closer and closer, he noticed a man with blond, wavy hair coming towards the bench, but he seemed too busy on the phone to notice Call. Oh, whatever. He’d let the other man have it. He could sit somewhere else.

Before Call could turn, the blond looked up from his device, his eyes going from the bench to Call and to the limp in his leg. By this point, Call was close enough to the man to clearly listen to him. “Oh, sorry. Sit. It’s fine.”

The guy was nice. Too nice. Call hated him already. Without arguing, Call took the seat and sat down, but made sure he occupied one side of the bench. He looked at the guy, who was now distracted by the playgrounf. Yeah, he definitely seemed like a dad. One that would tell the lamest jokes and laugh at them. “You know,” Call began, “I’m not huge. I won’t engulf the whole bench.”

The blond turned his head to Call. It would be great if the man rejected the offer, but quickly realizing how rude he was, Call took that back mentally. This is why he had no friends.

The other man gave a smile and said, “Thanks.” And with that he sat down on the other side of the bench.

At first it was silent. Call was never good at socializing, and he would’ve pretended to be busy on his phone, but he should face it – he didn’t have a social life.

If he can’t be distracted by his phone, he should at least get distracted by something else, like his child. His eyes drifted to Sophia on the swings, her little feet moving back and forth as she tried to push herself, still finding difficulty adding some force so she could move properly. Once she noticed her dad looking his way, she smiled at her dad and waved. Call waved back, giving her a small smile in return.

“So, are you a father?” the man asked, startling Call a bit. He didn’t expect the guy to talk. With his dark clothes and closed off behavior, Call wasn’t exactly approachable.

Call turned to the blond, nodding. “Yeah, a father of one.”

“Is she the one on the swings?” asked the guy.

Why did he even care? He was starting to annoy Call a bit, but deciding to suppress his emotions, Call answered briefly, “Yep.”

A bit of a pause. “She’s cute.” Another pause. “Mine are the two beside her. The toddler on the swing and the little girl pushing him.”

Call would have never guessed the two were siblings. The toddler was a white boy with blond hair while the girl had a slightly darker skin and brown hair. Besides that, the two seemed to like each other. And he thought siblings were out for blood. Hey, what would he know about siblings? He didn’t have one.

“Really? The girl is yours?” Call asked, raising an eyebrow.

He heard a laugh from the other side of the bench. “Yeah. I get that question a lot. My ex-wife is Iranian, so our first child turned out to look like her.”

Oh, so he was raising his children, perhaps. Maybe he was a single dad. Like Call. Even so, he might not be exactly like Call. The brunette didn’t have an ex-wife. He had an ex-girlfriend who, thanks to an incident with a defective condom, got pregnant. But by no means was Sophia a mistake. Sure, her birth was not planned, but Call would be lying if he said he didn’t fall in love with her once he saw her. Celia had considered giving her up for adoption, but Call wanted to take care of the baby. And he loved every moment of it. He felt like he had a purpose now. Having a child may not be cheap, but his job got him by.

“Well, that’s good. At least your children aren’t a hundred percent white,” he joked.

The guy laughed. After that followed a moment of silence, but this time it wasn’t awkward like before. “I’m Aaron, by the way. Aaron Stewart.”

Call didn’t realize for a good few seconds that the guy, Aaron, was holding out his hand to shake. To be honest, Call wasn’t even paying attention to him. He took Aaron’s hand, shaking it. “I’m Callum Hunt. Just call me Call.”

“Nice to meet you, Call,” Aaron said. His sentence was genuine, and his interest in Call was genuine. _Why?_ Callum thought.

“Nice to meet you, too,” Call said.

He thought that was it for the conversation, but it seemed that Call was too amazing for Aaron to stop talking. Not that Call minded. He didn’t have anything better to do. “So,” Aaron said, “do you usually come here?”

Where was this conversation going? “Sometimes. Mostly Sundays,” like today, “but when I’m not busy during weekdays, I come with my little girl here. She loves this place.”

“Ah,” Aaron said, nodding. “I come Saturdays and…” His voice trailed off, seemingly distracted by something in the playground. As Call turned his head to look at what was happening, Aaron started speaking again. “Looks like the two girls met.”

He was right. Sophia was talking to the other brunette, the little boy left on the swing, looking back at his sister with annoyance. The two were obviously very animated, both looking towards the bench and pointing excitedly. This was going to end with the two coming towards them. And he was right. The other girl held her brother’s hand and started running towards him and Aaron with Sophia right beside her.

“Dad! Dad! This is my new friend!” Sophia said, not hesitating to sit on his legs.

“Ouch,” he said.

She immediately knew that the pain came from his leg and got off it, now sitting only on his right leg. “Sorry,” she said as if ashamed. Oh, she wasn’t. She loved acting polite in front of other.

Deciding to take the attention away from his leg, he said, “What’s your friend’s name?” His eyes went to the other girl, who wasn’t making as much noise as his, and instead standing beside her dad shyly.

“Lara,” said Sophia.

The blond boy was angrily standing by Lara, his arms crossed. It was kind of cute. “Lala bad,” he said.

Aaron laughed. “Why is Lara bad?” he asked, picking up his son and sitting him on his lap.

“Doesn’t play with me,” he said.

Call realized the two must fight, contrary to what he initially thought, whether it be a lot or a bit, and this made Call kind of relieved he had one child. Although Sophia does get lonely, and he felt bad, but his only solution is to send her to play in the park. He would let her play with kids in the family, but the Hunt family was small, and even if they had someone she can play with, Call didn’t know about them.

“I’ll tell her off when we get home. Okay, Sam?” he asked. If anything, Call felt jealous now. No, not because Aaron had two adorable, diverse children. He didn’t care about that. His Sophia was perfect the way she was. He was jealous because Aaron seemed like a loving guy, and he wasn’t afraid to show it. Call really cared about Sophia, but he wasn’t really good at expressing it.

Stupid Aaron with his perfect smile, his perfect behavior, and his perfect everything. He felt like a child thinking like this, but as a parent, Call tried to strive for perfection, even though he was anything but that.

Call introduced Sophia as well, and that prompted the girl to extend her hand and shake Aaron’s. She called him ‘sir’, and Aaron seemed to find that adorable. After that, the kids fled to the playground, and the two men commenced talking. Call had to admit that this was nice. Despite hating how perfect Aaron was, he was flattered someone wanted to talk to him. From their conversation, Call got to know the guy a bit better, and the same went for Aaron. Apparently, Aaron, yes, was a single dad, but what was more interesting was that he worked as a mechanical engineer, fascinated by cars and machines since his teenage years. Call shared that he was working to be a canine rehab therapist since he loved dogs so much. And from that, talks about their passions emerged. By the time the kids came to their fathers so they could go home, the two did not want to end the conversation. They wanted to talk more, but the kids were more important now.

“I’m tired,” Sam said, rubbing his eyes.

Aaron sighed and then put his son down. He looked at Lara, who also seemed to be tired, but didn’t have it in her to say it. “Guess I’m leaving,” Aaron muttered to himself. He looked to Call, the smile returning to his face. “It was nice talking to you. Maybe we’ll see each other next Sunday,” he said, getting up.

“Maybe,” Call said. “Good luck to you.”

“You too,” Aaron said. And with that, he was gone. From the distance, he could see Aaron holding Sam in his arms, tiny hands wrapped around his neck. A part of Call really hoped he’d see the man. The conversation seemed short, but it was admittedly nice. Not many people conversed with Call these days.

“Ice cream!” The exclamation made Call jump in his place.

“Goodness, Sophia. I thought you were tired,” Call said. Sophia giggled, not a hint of regret in her face for scaring her father. He was used to her deviousness. “Let’s go get ice cream, you rascal.”

“Yay!”

* * *

 

Call was glad to be standing in front of his apartment once again. Today was nice, but he really needed to relax so he could work properly tomorrow. His promotion might come soon, and he really wanted to up his game. He took out his keys and unlocked the door. His four-year-old entered the apartment, but as soon as she did, she hurried back to Call and clutched him by the leg. “Uncle,” she said, looking up at Call.

Oh, hell no. He opened the door widely so he could confirm what Sophia had said. How he wished she was joking. He resisted the urge to scream when he saw his stepbrother sitting on the common room couch, a smug smile on his face. That bastard showed up during the most unexpected times. “Alex,” he said. “What the heck are you doing here?” His hands had formed fists, and it was hard for him to not punch the guy.

“Just thought I’d drop by and see my dearest brother,” Alex said.

“You are not my brother,” Call said, closing the door. He noticed his scared child who was eying the guy on the couch. _She_ even knew he was bad news. He leaned down and whispered to her. “Go to your room. When we’re alone, we’ll eat lunch together, okay?” he suggested.

She simply nodded and basically ran towards her room. He wanted to be in her position, having to face away from this _thing_. But he had to deal with Alex. “Okay, how did you get here?” he asked, stepping closer to him.

“Anastasia lent me the keys,” he said, holding them up for Call to see, as if teasing him. Oh, he would not let his stepmother do this again. She was very nice to Call, but he had no idea how she endured Alex. He needed to talk to her. But that was for later.

Call was fast enough to reach for the keys and mockingly smile at his brother. “And those are for my parents. Not you. Now get out,” he said.

“Oh, come on. I’m your brother. You know I care about you.” That was too laughable for Call, but this was not the time to laugh.

“You don’t give any crap about me. Remember freshman year of high school?” he said. It was during _Call’s_ freshman year. He was already having a crappy year, but Alex wanted to make it hell. Or rather he didn’t want Call in school anymore. During a test, Alex had sneaked in a paper with some notes in Call’s pocket. It made Call look bad, like he wanted to cheat, and the school was having none of it because of their strict policy. He was suspended for a few days, and when Call came back, he pointed out that this was Alex’s handwriting, not his, on the notes. As if Call wrote down notes. Please. But there were more occasions where Alex tried to ruin Call’s life in attempts to get Call expelled, and they ended up backfiring, so Alex got expelled instead. Ever since, the older guy was bitter that Call not only managed to stay in school, but also because he managed to get good grades despite his lack of study and care. Call couldn’t help that he was inherently good at what he did.

“As if you were the innocent one-”

“I don’t think you heard me before,” Call said, stopping his from talking even more. Even though he hated Alex’s guts right now, he managed to inch closer to him and bring his intimidating voice into action. “Get out. You’re not welcome here.”

This time, Alex got up, as if he was satisfied. Oh, Call was going to skin him alive if he did this again. “See you later, brother.”

The door opened and then closed behind where Call stood. He just hoped he wouldn’t see Alex for a while. His gut feelings told him that he was wrong. But he had to shake it off. After taking a few breaths, he said, “He’s gone. You can come out now.”

 _Forget about Alex,_ Call though. _Forget about him._ He thought it would take longer to do so, but once he saw Sophia, he felt better. It’s amazing what she did to him in tough times, even when she herself was hard to manage. “McDonald’s?” he asked.

“McDonald’s!” she said excitedly.

**Author's Note:**

> This took longer to write than I thought 1) because I didn’t know what conflict to put for a few good days and 2) my grandma’s cousin died during the week and I couldn’t bring myself to write anything. So I apologize if this is short.
> 
> Anyway, this was supposed to be lovey-dovey, but if you know me well, I love torturing the characters, so lookout for that. 
> 
> Also, yes, there are a few different things here (hence the word AU). Just a brief explanation of the differences that may concern you: Anastasia is young in this AU, about the age of Alastair. Sarah exists in this fic, and Anastasia is just here to serve the purpose of having Alex and Call be somewhat related. I know Anastasia is practically like a mother to Alastair (if you think about the age) but I just needed to do this. I’ll explain more about the relationships in later chapters, hopefully.
> 
> That is all I have to say, so I’ll see you beautiful people hopefully next week with another fanfic (perhaps a dystopian-ish one).
> 
> Later!


End file.
